SEENPMhttp://seenpm.org
South East European Network for Professionalization of MediaMon, 17 Dec 2018 21:56:11 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.7.12Polarisation and Clientelism Limit Media Freedom in Central and South East Europehttp://seenpm.org/polarisation-clientelism-limit-media-freedom-central-south-east-europe/
http://seenpm.org/polarisation-clientelism-limit-media-freedom-central-south-east-europe/#respondMon, 17 Dec 2018 21:56:11 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6708Challenged media pluralism, amid polarization and clientelism in Central and South East Europe, was the focus of a public debate in Budapest featuring prominent media...

]]>Challenged media pluralism, amid polarization and clientelism in Central and South East Europe, was the focus of a public debate in Budapest featuring prominent media experts.

The regional conference titled “News Media and Parallel Realities in Central and Southeast Europe” was held on Human Rights Day, 10 December, organized by the Center for Independent Journalism (Budapest), the Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM), Goethe-Institute Budapest and IFEX.

Marius Dragomir

We are focusing on the same issues as 20 years ago when media concentration and media independence were in focus, said Marius Dragomir, director of the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) at the Central European University in Budapest, opening his keynote speech on how populist trends and technological changes affect independent media and freedom of expression.

However, we live in an entirely different media landscape now: one of its features is a more diffused nature of the enemies of free expression. New generation of oligarchs are taking big part of media markets creating media concentrations.

“The biggest challenge to media pluralism today is the new elite controlling state structures and running media as private enterprise,” Dragomir stressed, pointing to a number of ways in which such trends could be countered.

New models of journalism, such as new web portals, often small, but managing to find business models and niche audience perhaps can’t compete with large media companies, but Dragomir believes their joint push could be strong.

He also highlighted successful cross-border collaborative investigations, of which we have seen a lot in the past decade, something that Dragomir believes should be supported further.

Long term response, however, should be policy, Dragomir opined, pointing out that that large donors no longer fund media policy in the region, something that has very negative effect on the media situation.

“Media policy is now more closed to public scrutiny than ever before and it is crucial to put it on the agenda again,” Dragomir concluded.

When Polarization Rules

Panelists of the discussion focusing on social and political divisions influencing the discourse in news media agreed that polarization had always existed in their countries, albeit in somewhat different forms.

According to Boro Kontić, director of Mediacentar Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a society deeply polarized along ethnic lines.

“The country is still slave to the war that ended 22 years ago. But looking at the media you would think that it finished a few days ago. If the society is polarized, the media follow that,” Kontić said.

Marius Dragomir pointed out that polarization existed before the internet era, along ideological, economic and social lines, but social media made it much stronger.

Dragomir thinks that the most negative impact is on sound, objective, fact-led journalism. In countries such as Hungary and Turkey, independent journalists become opposition journalists, something that may affect their objectivity.

Objective, fact-based journalism is still possible, an example being countries with strong public service broadcasting systems, such as Nordic countries, Dragomir said.

Kontić explained that public service media in Bosnia are controlled by the authorities, while it is precisely these outlets that should be erasing division lines.

As a result, citizens’ ability to distinguish between good and bad journalism, understand nuances and pay attention to important details has been diminished, an observation that prompted panelists to emphasize the need for institutionalizing media literacy education as a response to polarization in media discourse.

Evren Gönül and Boro Kontić

Rights based journalism was put forward by Evren Gönül of Bianet (Istanbul) as a way to give voice to “all colours of society,” with this approach offering protection from compulsions of repressive state and the market.

Supporting good journalism and good media policies in particular is important. We have to find more creative and innovative ways how to do that, said Biljana Petkovska of the Macedonian Institute for Media.

Clientelism and Market Distortions

A presentation on clientelistic media systems and journalism practices in Hungary by Péter Bajomi-Lázár PhD, media researcher from Budapest, opened a panel on corrupt political and business practices that lead to marginalisation of independent and critical voices in media.

Péter Bajomi-Lázár

Bajomi-Lázár described the Hungarian media system and journalism culture since 2010 as one marked by strong state intervention that led to almost complete centralization of media scene today under Fidesz party and the Central European Press and Media Foundation, the media conglomerate headed by Prime Minsiter Viktor Orbán’s supporter and media owner, Gábor Liszkay.

As a result, Hungary now has a clientelistic media system, founded on a web of privileges. The outcome is unequal access to the media, pro-government news bias and marginalisaton of critical voices, Bajomi-Lázár said, adding:

“Collaborationist journalism seems to be flourishing – media as an agent of controlling society, a means of regime apology and defending status quo.”

Bajomi-Lázár pointed out that clientelistic media systems and unethical journalism generate ideologically loaded messages. Privileges reward unethical journalism and sanction the ethical one, with unethical journalism becoming an adaptation strategy and even a viable business model.

The situation in Turkey has changed remarkably in the last few years. The government controls at least 95% of mass the media industry. Even the private media is under government control. In this atmosphere some voices are trying to get through, explained Andrew Finkel of P24 (Istanbul).

The question is why president Erdoğan and the government still feel the need to go after dissident media. It is because the independent media has the power to disrupt the dominant official discourse, Finkel said.

Yana Pelovska

Bulgaria was 36th in 2006, just before joining the EU, and has since dropped to 111th place in the RSF World Press Freedom Index (out of 180 countries), Yana Pelovska of the Media Development Center (Sofia) pointed out.

A single oligarch owns most newspapers in the country and 80 percent of distribution. Pelovska recalled that last year the first issue of a newly launched quality cartoonist newspaper was not distributed as the oligarch was featured in it, which resulted in thousands of citizens distributing it from hand to hand and via social media as a form of resistance.

In Croatia, every new government “grabs” the national public broadcaster after it gets elected, Saša Leković of the Investigative Journalism Center (Zagreb) explained.

The Croatian society is split, which reflects on journalism, with ultra

Saša Leković

nationalist, clerical media, supported by the church and the government, now emerging claiming what they do is journalism, he said.

Leković, who is a former president of the Croatian Journalist Association HND, pointed out that Croatia lacks media strategy that would result in new media laws, because the government does not want that.

In Albania, clientelistic media system has started to perfect itself after 20 years of existence, said Ilda Londo of the Albanian Media Institute (Tirana).

The overall climate of distrust towards institutions in society translates to a media scene where 67 percent of journalists do not want to be part of trade unions and associations as they do not see the benefits.

Ilda Londo

General reaction of the public to the media situation is missing, while the only source of resistance is the media operating on foreign funds, Londo said.

The public event was organised as part of SEENPM’s General Assembly, an annual gathering of the network’s 19 member organisations from thirteen countries of Central and South East Europe. The General Assembly meeting was an opportunity for the network members to exchange experiences and knowledge and conduct strategic planning on future cooperation.

]]>http://seenpm.org/polarisation-clientelism-limit-media-freedom-central-south-east-europe/feed/0Media in Croatia, defeated by the economyhttp://seenpm.org/media-in-croatia-defeated-by-the-economy/
http://seenpm.org/media-in-croatia-defeated-by-the-economy/#respondFri, 14 Dec 2018 13:01:29 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6702What is the state of the Croatian media? And what could the government and the institutions do to improve the situation? OBCT asked Hrvoje Zovko,...

]]>What is the state of the Croatian media? And what could the government and the institutions do to improve the situation? OBCT asked Hrvoje Zovko, the new president of the Association of Croatian Journalists (HND).

Hrvoje Zovko, born in 1970, has been the new president of the Association of Croatian Journalists (HND) since last summer. For over twenty years, he worked at Croatian public television HRT, but was fired a couple of months ago. We asked him to assess the state of the press in Croatia.

What happened? Why this dismissal?

What happened is that I denounced censorship within HRT and, because of that, I clashed with my editor-in-chief, Katarina Periša Čakarun. It all started with a story about the internal conflicts of the HDZ [the ruling conservative party, ed.] on the occasion of the announcement of a protest in Vukovar, held in October, against the non-prosecution of war crimes. That event was showing once again how prime minister Andrej Plenković’s party is crossed by various currents and I wanted to cover this. I was forbidden to do it.

But why the dismissal?

This is an unlawful dismissal and I will prove it in court. I was fired shortly after arguing with the editor-in-chief of HRT’s information programme. I heard about the dismissal from the media, while I was at a press conference at the Association of Croatian Journalists, where they were discussing my case. I was accused of being “aggressive” and physically attacking Periša Čakarun – which, of course, has never happened. I would like to point out that, in 21 years of working at HRT, I have never been warned, let alone punished, for my behaviour. Hence, after what happened, I decided to sue HRT and the trial is still ongoing.

What do you think is the real reason for your dismissal?

In addition to my denouncing censorship, what annoys the HRT leadership is the fact that I became president of the Association of Croatian Journalists. Croatian public television, today, does not have a good opinion of HND; in fact, it is much closer to HNIP (Hrvatsko društvo novinara i publicist), an association that has nothing to do with journalism and was created just before the HDZ’s return to power and the formation of the government of Orešković and Karamarko [in 2016, ed.]. Two years ago, about 80 HRT editors and editors-in-chief were dismissed within a couple of days – something unprecedented in the history of this country – and replaced by members of HNIP. In short, as far as I’m concerned, I had to make a choice: either HND or HRT. And my dismissal is a message for all those who still work in Croatian public television and a direct attack on HND.

What is the situation inside HRT today?

It’s a horrible situation. Those appointed by Karamarko in 2016 have done nothing but carry out the agenda of the government and the Catholic Church. Dozens of colleagues, excellent journalists, have decided to leave, moving first to NovaTV or RTL and more recently to Al Jazeera and N1. The audience decreased abruptly, while HRT became the government’s spokesman. There is no longer any investigation, no more room for criticism. Finally, in the national public television programme there have also been cases of historical revisionism related to the Independent State of Croatia [the puppet State allied to the Nazi-fascists and led by Ante Pavelić during the Second World War, ed.] and no one has taken responsibility for this.

Hrvoje Zovko (photo by G. Vale)

Outside of HRT, how is Croatian journalism faring?

Just as badly, I would say, although there are still great journalists and media outlets who want to do their best. Yet, generally, the situation is not good. More than political pressure, it is the bad economic situation that weakens the press. Since the crisis began ten years ago, 800 journalists have lost their jobs. Newsrooms have shrunk. Investigative journalism is virtually dead. And many colleagues are economically vulnerable today because of low salaries and precarious contracts. In addition, in 2016 the Orešković government cut the public funds for non-profit media. About twenty websites have lost around 400,000 Euros a year overnight. Those that have not already closed sail on sight.

Has the current government, which took office at the end of 2016, taken steps to mitigate these decisions?

Not at all. The “new” Minister of Culture, who replaced Hasanbegović [former far-right minister author of the cuts to the press, ed.], has not changed anything in three years. I know she is working on the new Media Strategy Act, but we have not been involved. Everything happens in a very little transparent way. And this is the basis for a whole series of media laws.

In this context of economic difficulties, how are the Croatian media positioned with respect to the government? Can they maintain their independence?

It’s difficult. In the 1990s, at the time of president Franjo Tuđman, pressure on the media was very strong, but newspapers had a large circulation, they could defend themselves. Today few copies are printed and there is growing pressure from advertisers and economic lobbies. All this threatens free journalism. Suffice it to say that the main buyer of advertising space in newspapers is the Agrokor group, today controlled by an extraordinary administration. This same administration has repaid, in circumstances that are not transparent and at least dubious from a legal point of view, the debts that Agrokor had with some media, thus acquiring their loyalty. Mainstream media were already subordinate to Agrokor and this relationship continues today, in a context in which the “invisible hand” that managed the transition was that of former vice-premier Martina Dalić. In short, political pressure exists and newspapers organise increasingly frequent conferences together with the ministries to present government initiatives. And this does not suggest anything positive.

And what about physical attacks or threats to journalists?

We have counted 50 attacks or serious threats over the past four years. The latest physical attack occurred in Zadar just two months ago. The point is that Croatian society has become radicalised from 2016 onwards and threats are now common. Just a couple of days ago a colleague from Split, who has covered the mafia presence in the construction sector, found the tires of his car, parked in front of his house, punctured. But what is even more scandalous is the silence of prime minister Andrej Plenković and president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. Not only do they not defend journalists, but they do not even condemn the attacks. An example is Grabar-Kitarović’s statement last summer, after a war veteran had invited on Facebook to “kill all journalists of the Index.hr portal”: Grabar-Kitarović dismissed everything as just “the expression of a citizen’s dissatisfaction”.

What should the Croatian government do to improve the state of the press in the country?

First of all, working together, we should modify the press law, this famous strategy for the media we know nothing about. We need more transparency and more involvement of the HND and other stakeholders in this process. We should then take action on HRT to restore independence and credibility. HRT must not be hostage to any political system, it must work for the public and not for the parties. Then there is the problem of the lack of transparency in the ownership of newspapers, and finally hate speech against journalists.

Can the European institutions help in any way?

Surely it would help if there were more pressure on the government by Brussels. But the truth is that the state of the media does not enjoy the same consideration as the economic parameters. We must fight alone, partly because I do not know to what extent the European Union can still be considered as a safe space for journalists, given all the murders of colleagues in recent months. I have the impression that the EU, with its silence on these issues, is destroying its roots, its values, which include freedom of expression.

This publication has been produced within the project European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The project’s page

]]>http://seenpm.org/media-in-croatia-defeated-by-the-economy/feed/0In eight months, 57 journalists attacked in Serbia, pressure on media growinghttp://seenpm.org/eight-months-57-journalists-attacked-serbia-pressure-media-growing/
http://seenpm.org/eight-months-57-journalists-attacked-serbia-pressure-media-growing/#respondThu, 13 Dec 2018 09:55:55 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6699Media freedom, as one of the basic human rights and the foundation of every democratic and law respecting country, is imperilled in Serbia, hate speech...

]]>Media freedom, as one of the basic human rights and the foundation of every democratic and law respecting country, is imperilled in Serbia, hate speech and political abuse of media are spreading, while the number of attacks on journalists is on the rise, an analysis said, the Beta news agency reported.

The survey “Freedom of expression and media freedom in Serbia in the EU integration process” presented in the European Union Centre in Belgrade analysed current state and future trends in six related negotiating chapters from 2014, when Serbia adopted media laws, until September 2018.

The analysis is based on reports by local and international organisations, legal documents and investigative articles.

Dragan Popovic from the House for Human Rights and a co-author of the study said the trend in physical attacks, verbal threats and pressures on journalists increased since 2013.

In 2017 there were 92 attacks reported, while in the first eight months of this year journalists were assaulted 57 times.

He added the main problem was with the institutions which did not react adequately, or did it slowly, or did not act at all.

Regarding the freedom of expression, the authors criticised the work of the Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media (REM) stating some irregularities regarding the election of its members, reactions to reports during pre-election campaigns as well as for the appointment of the steering committees in the state televisions RTS of Serbia and RTV of Vojvodina.

A particular issue with REM was the lack of its control over media content on TV channels with national frequency where hate speech could be often heard.

Maja Stojanovic from the Civic Initiatives said REM turned a blind eye on political abuse of media during the campaigns.

She added that according to the BIRODI monitoring organisation, in the 2017 presidential election campaign the ruling majority candidate Aleksandar Vucic had 15,000 TV seconds more than all other contestants put together.

Besides, the participants in the debate about the study said the financing of media was selective and not transparent.

Tanja Maksic, from the investigative BIRN network, added the budget funding of competitive media programmes was also irregular and turned into a corruptive mechanism, adding an efficient system was needed to monitor the spending of the state money and its effects.

The article, originally produced by Beta News Agency, was republished from N1 Serbia.

]]>http://seenpm.org/eight-months-57-journalists-attacked-serbia-pressure-media-growing/feed/0Serbia: Journalist’s house burned down – swift investigation demandedhttp://seenpm.org/journalists-organization-demands-investigation-attack-portal-editor/
http://seenpm.org/journalists-organization-demands-investigation-attack-portal-editor/#respondThu, 13 Dec 2018 08:55:49 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6696The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) on Wednesday called for an immediate investigation into the fire in the home of news portal journalist in a...

]]>The Journalists’ Association of Serbia (UNS) on Wednesday called for an immediate investigation into the fire in the home of news portal journalist in a Belgrade suburb.

The UNS statement said the police and prosecution should immediately investigate the circumstances in which the home of Zig Info editor Milan Jovanovic burned down and determine whether the incident has anything to do with his work.

The Movement of Free Citizens (PSG) said in a press release that unidentified persons torched the Jovanovic home is the Grocka suburb and fired shots at his front door to prevent the family from leaving the house.

The house was set ablaze at around 03:00 am when a Molotov cocktail was thrown through a window, reports N1.

The house was completely burned down together with all Jovanovic’s furniture and his car. Jovanović, who sustained minor injuries, was immediately hospitalized, says OSCE in a press release.

Zig info editor Zeljko Matorcevic said that both he and Jovanovic had reported threats against them on several occasions but were never told whether an investigation had been launched. Matorcevic told the Beta news agency that portal journalists had threats made against them earlier after filing reports on what the local authorities were doing to bring natural gas to the suburb and added that he had been beaten up in October, reports N1.

The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Harlem Désir, condemned the attack.

“I strongly condemn this terrible act, and urge the law enforcement agencies to swiftly investigate it,” said Désir, “It is important that Jovanović and his family are protected and that the investigation will swiftly and thoroughly uncover the real motives behind this attack.”

The Representative recalled that this is not an isolated incident involving journalists from Žig info. In October, Željko Matorčević, the editor-in-chief of the news portal, was the victim of a physical attack.

Désir stressed the important role of the Permanent Working Group for Safety of Journalists in Serbia, in following up on these cases.

]]>http://seenpm.org/journalists-organization-demands-investigation-attack-portal-editor/feed/0Calls to investigate purchase of two Serbian TV stationshttp://seenpm.org/calls-investigate-purchase-two-serbian-tv-stations/
http://seenpm.org/calls-investigate-purchase-two-serbian-tv-stations/#respondSat, 08 Dec 2018 21:02:55 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6688The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) has called for a quick investigation into the purchase of the TV Prva and O2 stations by the...

]]>The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (NUNS) has called for a quick investigation into the purchase of the TV Prva and O2 stations by the Kopernikus Corporation which is owned by the brother of a ranking ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) official.

Kopernikus sold its cable provider branch to the state-owned Telekom Serbia last month for a price of almost 200 million Euros which experts believe is much higher than the real value of the subordinate company.

The NUNS and some NGOs warned that this is a case in which media freedom and pluralism are being undermined but Culture and Information Minister Vladan Vukosavljevic says that “as far as he knows, the purchase of Prva and O2 was done in line with the law”.

Kopernikus Corporation owner Srdjan Milovanovic could soon become the top Serbian media mogul with two TV stations with national frequencies, three web portals, a radio station and nine cable TV channels. He sold his Kopernikus Technologies to the Telekom and then bought Antena Group’s media empire in Serbia for almost the same price in the space of just one month.

“This is intriguing and deserves a quick reaction by state bodies,” NUNS official Dragan Janjic said. The only quick reaction came for the Serbian President who appeared on the pro-government TV Pink morning show a day after the purchase of the two TV stations was confirmed.

Aleksandar Vucic said he only met Milovanovic, whose brother is the top SNS official in the southern city of Nis, on two occasions. A marketing agency close to Vucic’s SNS had a contract with Kopernikus to produce eight hours of programming on one of its channels prior to the 2012 elections.

Vucic added that the fact that Milovanovic’s brother is a ranking SNS official has nothing to do with the purchase of the TV stations.

Janjic said Vucic’s reaction to the Kopernikus purchase of two TV stations would give rise to suspicions. “Either he knew about it in advance or he is trying to arbitrate,” he said.

The Civic Initiative’s Maja Stojanovic agreed that an investigation should be launched. “The president does not have jurisdiction over this issue and it would certainly be good for state institutions such as the prosecution and relevant ministries to investigate and see if there was corruption,” she said.

Srdjan Milovanovic was asked for a comment by N1 but has put it off twice.

]]>Brussels, December 7, 2018 – 66 % of the women journalists who were victims of online harassment suffered attacks based on their gender, according to the results of the IFJ’s survey released today.

The results also reveal that while half of these attacks were reported in just 13 % of cases was the harasser identified or brought to justice.

Online harassment affects both male and female journalists. However, initial results from the IFJ survey found that online abuse has a massive impact on women journalists –it affects almost two-thirds of them – causing psychological trauma and leading to self-censorship, among other effects.

The new findings reveal that online harassment directed towards women journalists is mainly based on their gender –sexist insults, humiliation because of their physical appearance, rape threats among other gender-based attacks – while online abuse against male journalists is not.

48 % of women respondents confirmed that they received sexist insults and 46 % of them said the comments devalued their work because of their gender identity. In addition to this, 22 % of women journalists received obscene images from unknown individuals and 14 % of them were victims of rape threats.

Myriam Leroy, a Belgian freelance journalist who told the IFJ about her case “received thousands of insults and rape threats and hundreds of death threats. All of them, always, had a sexual connotation”.

Another alarming conclusion of the survey is that a huge majority of these attacks go unpunished. Only half of the victims of online abuse (53%) reported the attacks to their media management, union or police, and in 2 in 3 cases nothing happened.

“I have so many women writing to me that they have left Twitter and other social media after numerous attacks. They felt unprotected out there”, said Alexandra Pascalidou in one of our testimonies, a statement that the survey confirms.

75 % of the women journalists subject to online harassment who did not report these attacks did not do it because they felt it was not going to make a difference, while 23 % did not want the situation to affect their work. It is worrying that women journalists are getting used to dealing with online harassment by themselves and assuming these situations as “common”.

One of the main objectives of online harassers is to silence journalists. Many women facing such situations resort to self-censorship.

Laura Crespo, a young Spanish journalist, suffered continual online abuse from an individual who did not want her to report on women’s football. Something similar is suffering Noelia Díaz, a Paraguayan journalist, who is currently harassed for posting on feminism. Both continued with their reporting despite the threats.

However, not all women journalists do it. 38 % of women respondents who were subject of online abuse admitted to self-censorship. This is not only a serious problem for victims but for the whole society: the fundamental right to freedom of information is threatened when journalists self-censor.

At the same time, online violence also has a psychological impact. The majority of abused respondents said these attacks had had psychological effects such as anxiety, fear or stress (63 %). Belgian journalist Florence Hainaut suffered this fear.

“The guy was more and more worrying, I was scared. At the time, I used to wake up at 2:30 am to go to work. For several weeks, I only went out of my house with a knife”.

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said:

“Social media must be a space where all journalists can express their opinion and publish their work freely and without fear. We demand existing laws are enforced, and that where necessary new laws adapted to the digital age are enacted to defend victims of online abuse and make harassers accountable for their crimes. We demand that employers take seriously complaints made, have proper procedures to enable reporting of harassment and act to stop the abuse”.

IFJ Gender Council co-chair Mindy Ran said:

‘These testimonies clearly show the abuse of power and violation of fundamental rights and freedom of the press. The rampant silencing of female journalists and hounding of those brave enough to stand in the face of such sexualised and serious threats must be acknowledged with more than (almost) blanket immunity for these crimes.’

]]>http://seenpm.org/ifj-survey-two-thirds-women-journalists-suffered-gender-based-online-attacks/feed/0Serbia: Hitler, Caricature Artist and Media Freedomhttp://seenpm.org/serbia-hitler-caricature-artist-media-freedom/
http://seenpm.org/serbia-hitler-caricature-artist-media-freedom/#respondFri, 30 Nov 2018 14:03:51 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6677The media situation in Serbia continues to deteriorate. Recent events show that government repression of few remaining non-aligned media has become routine. According to RWB,...

]]>The media situation in Serbia continues to deteriorate. Recent events show that government repression of few remaining non-aligned media has become routine. According to RWB, Serbia has the worst media situation in all the Balkans.

Speaking of media freedom in the Balkans, Pauline Adès-Mével, the head of EU-Balkans desk at Reporters Without Borders, said that “the situation in Serbia is worse than in other countries in the region”. In fact, according to the latest World Press Freedom Index , released by Reporters Without Borders in April 2018, Serbia slipped 10 places compared to the previous year’s listing to rank 76th out of the 180 countries.

Judging by some of the things that happened over the last month, in Serbia freedom of expression and media professionalism are “in freefall”, so the future reports published by international organisations will probably show further decline in media freedom in the country.

The few remaining independent media are struggling to survive, being constantly exposed to pressures from the political establishment which is using the news outlets under its control – among which there are many TV stations holding a national broadcasting license – to discredit all dissident voices.

“Caricatures of our lives”

The controversy over caricatures of one of the most important Serbian caricature artists Predrag Koraksić Corax – appeared on the front page of the Belgrade daily Danas – still hasn’t quite down. Polemic broke out when, during the parliamentary sitting, Aleksandar Martinović, parliamentary leader of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), accused the daily Danas of conducting “a smear campaign against the SNS and innocent people” that, according to his words , “hasn’t been seen since the time of Hitler and Goebbels”. The deputy leader of the SNS parliamentary group Vladimir Orlić also attacked journalists of the daily Danas, calling them “a disgrace to Serbian journalism”.

Corax replied with another caricature, depicting Hitler and Goebbels holding Orlić and Martinović and bottle feeding them. By publishing this caricature, the daily Danas responded to numerous attacks from the political leadership that reacts to every critical text published by this daily and few other media that are not under control of the ruling party.

The Ministry of Culture and Information strongly condemned Corax’s drawing, claiming that with it the parliamentarians Martinović and Orlović, as well as Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, have been linked, directly or indirectly, to unacceptable and morally inadmissible context”.

However, president Vučić doesn’t appear in any of the controversial caricatures, so “the reading” of their content by the Ministry of Culture was received with derision by one part of Serbian public opinion, which commented that the Ministry doesn’t distinguish anymore Hitler from Vučić.

The next day, an exhibition of caricatures by Corax and Dušan Petričić, entitled “Caricatures of our lives”, hosted in the city library of Lazarevac, near Belgrade, was censored. The exhibition was opened on 9th November, as a part of the celebrations of the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, but the following day the images were removed. The explanation given by library director is that the exhibition was politicized, since some members of the opposition were among the participants in panel discussion organised on the occasion of the exhibition opening.

“The dogs have been unleashed”

The Ministry of Culture and Information, that strongly condemned the daily Danas and Corax’s cartoons, didn’t react at all to a recent edition of the weekly Ilustrovana politika carrying the front-page headline: “The dogs have been unleashed”, accompanied by a photograph of a dog with gaping jaws, against the background covered with representations of front pages of some independent Serbian newspaper, including the weeklies Vreme and NIN, and the daily Danas. In a six-page article, published in the same edition of Ilustrovana politika, the above-mentioned independent newspapers were accused of acting against Serbia.

Front page of Ilustrovana Politika: “The dogs have been unleashed”

The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia (NUNS) and the Independent Association of Journalists of Vojvodina (NDNV) described the front page of Ilustrovana politika and its article as “a classical call for lynching of independent journalists and media, as well as all those taking a critical stance towards the Serbian political leadership”.

The journalists’ associations also pointed out that Đorđe Martić, author of the controversial article, was the editor-in-chief of a newspaper that in 1999, during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, published an explicit call for lynching of journalist Slavko Ćuruvija who was killed five day later in the center of Belgrade.

As stated in a join press release by NUNS and NDNV, “another frightening thing is that the political leadership – in a similar manner as in the late 1990s, when Vučić was minister of Information – doesn’t limit itself to an article, but continues to discuss about it on television, with a clear intention to encourage the dissemination of this scandalous invitation to lynching”.

The polemics calmed down only after, Suzana Vasiljević, Vučić’s head of public relations, resigned – under the pressure of public opinion – from the membership in the Supervisory Board of “Politika ltd”, publisher of Ilustrovana politika, and after president Vučić publicly condemned controversial front page.

No representative of the political power condemned, or tried to substantiate the claims made by Marko Parezanović, member of Serbian intelligence (BIA), during a panel discussion in which he participated sitting alongside Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić. Parezanović said that the biggest threat to Serbia is “hidden action of a foreign factor that mostly uses mechanisms of its special services”, and that some members of the opposition and some media are acting in its interest.

Fake livestream from Paris and real war criminal from Hague

Another image, this time broadcast on the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), highlighted the lack of professionalism and indulgence in progovernment media. During a live broadcast of speech by French president Emmanuel Macron on the occasion of the centenary of the First World War Armistice, RTS inserted, three times, a freeze frame depicting president Vučić among the public. Although this kind of intervention is quite unusual in live streaming, RTS said that “editor in charge made an error of judgment”.

However, one has the impression that RTS tried to emphasize the importance of Vučić’s presence at the event. During the commemoration ceremony in Paris, Vučić was in a certain sense marginalised, or rather he didn’t get a seat he expected alongside most honored guests, among whom were also some Balkan leaders, including president of Kosovo Hashim Thaçi and president of Croatia Kolinda Grabar Kitarović.

On the other hand, there was no intervention regarding a television show in which participated, by phone, Ratko Mladić, commander of the Army of Republika Srpska, sentenced to life imprisonment by Hague Tribunal for various crimes, including the Srebrenica genocide.

On a morning show on TV Hepi, station with national frequency licence, hosted by station’s director Milormir Marić, appeared leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Šešelj, son of Ratko Mladić, Darko Mladić, and deputy in the Russian State Duma Pavel Dorohin.

During the show, Darko Mladić called his father and put him on speakerphone, and Ratko Mladić was chatting with guests in the studio without being interrupted by questions.

One would expect from the Electronic Media regulatory Authority (REM) to warn, or sanction TV Hepi, for promoting a war criminal. However, in Serbia those things not only don’t get sanctioned but are considered acceptable.

According to Olivera Zekić , member of the Council of REM, “the phone calls are not regulated by law, and those with ethical concerns should go to church”. When asked if it is appropriate for a national TV station to promote war criminals, Zekić responded with a counter-question: “have you ever heard about the battle for the market and for the audience?”.

This publication has been produced within the project European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The project’s page

]]>http://seenpm.org/serbia-hitler-caricature-artist-media-freedom/feed/0Turkey media, between European solidarity and tolerancehttp://seenpm.org/turkey-media-european-solidarity-tolerance/
http://seenpm.org/turkey-media-european-solidarity-tolerance/#respondFri, 30 Nov 2018 13:29:47 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6673The difficult situation of Turkey’s press told by well-known journalists, the effects of European solidarity initiatives, and the prospects for the future. A report of...

]]>The difficult situation of Turkey’s press told by well-known journalists, the effects of European solidarity initiatives, and the prospects for the future. A report of the event “Turkey’s Media Under Siege”, covered by Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa (OBCT).

Turkey’s press is under siege. More than 90% of national media is controlled by pro-government companies. Over 160 journalists are in jail, including 129 as a result of the coup attempt in July 2016. After that date, 54 newspapers were closed – plus 6 news agencies, 24 radio stations, 17 television networks, and 20 magazines. Unfortunately, it seems that public opinion in Europe has become accustomed to such news and has almost accepted that Turkey is turning into an “Islamist Turkmenistan”.

These are the premises and some of the comments emerged from the event organised last Wednesday by the International Press Institute (IPI) in collaboration with German daily WELT in Berlin’s House of the European Union. Many leading journalists and jurists took the floor and gave direct testimony to the conditions in which media professionals continue to carry out their work in Turkey, with a stubborn look to the future. In addition to describing the difficulties they face on a daily basis, the debate also focused on Europe’s role in defending fundamental rights in Turkey.

What about Europe’s role?

“Europe must make a decision. It has to decide whether it wants to keep engaging with Turkey or abandon it”, said Nevşin Mengü, recently fired after being an anchorwoman at CNN Turkey for several years. “But if it abandons it, it will have to acknowledge that an Islamist Turkmenistan will be at its borders”, the journalist added, “and deal with this fact”.

“If this event had been organised two years ago, there would have been many more people than today”, was the opening line by Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yücel, released last February from the Turkish prison of Silivri after being held in custody for over a year. The German authorities had taken decisive action for the reporter’s release. In the still ongoing trial, the Turkish judiciary has requested up to 18 years in prison.

“Turkey is not just any country for Germany. There is no German who has not visited Turkey at least once in their life, who does not have a Turkish friend or neighbour. In addition, Turkey until recently was a country that wanted to join the European Union. This is why the reaction to the country’s authoritarian turn in the last 5 years has been stronger here than in other Western European countries”, said Yücel.

“My arrest has helped increase this attention and my name has become a symbol to talk about the situation of the Turkish press in general. Unfortunately, however, when I stopped being a symbol – because I was released – the interest of the public fell too”.

Yücel brought the example of Turkish-German online newspaper TAZ , founded 2 years ago and entirely supported by readers’ subscriptions. “We note that this year the amount necessary to support editorial activities is being reached with great difficulty, unlike in past years. Unfortunately, this is a sign that both the public and the German government are getting used to the idea that Turkey is a lost cause”.

The importance of mobilization

At the same time, however, the positive role of Europe, of the EU institutions, of the Council of Europe, and of the organisations that in recent years have mobilised to support press freedom in Turkey is undeniable.

Fatih Polat, editor of the independent newspaper Evrensel, reminded how important the presence of international observers is to the processes that affect colleagues every day.

“Solidarity influences the attitude of judges in the courtroom. When there are external observers, they feel compelled to explain the decisions. In one of the trials I have witnessed, the judge even pointed out that ‘the trial was followed by public opinion”.

An important act of solidarity is the subscription campaign just launched by IPI to support Evrensel and BirGün, among the few independent newspapers left in the Turkish media landscape.

Nurcan Baysal, human rights activist and Kurdish journalist, explained how much more difficult it is to be able to do her job in the south-eastern provinces with a Kurdish majority.

“Here journalists’ activities are shaped by the wars and clashes that take place in the region. After the peace process was interrupted in 2015, journalism has increasingly been associated with terrorism”, the journalist said.

Baysal herself was detained for tweeting against the Turkish army’s intervention in Afrin earlier this year.

“I know for sure that at Diyarbakır’s attorney office there is a person tasked with monitoring my activities on social media”, adds the activist, who stresses that she was only released “thanks to the sensation stirred in Europe by my arrest” .

Journalist Mehveş Evin, who after a long career at mainstream newspaper Milliyet works for the portals Artı Gerçek and Yeni Yaşam, explains that even small, symbolic gestures of support can influence the morale of journalists in jail, letting them know – and those who keep them imprisoned – that they are not alone.

“Sending books or letters is a very good way to demonstrate this support”.

Tora Pekin, a lawyer in the Cumhuriyet trial, stressed that the support received from the international media has been essential. Likewise, the civil actions brought by human rights organisations, IPI, and other press organisations that intervened in Cumhuriyet case before the European Court of Human Rights (https://ipi.media/groups-intervene-in-cumhuriyet-case-before-echr/) are a very strong act of support, said Pekin.

Continuing solidarity actions in the face of legal, judicial, and financial pressures affecting journalists in Turkey remains essential. However, according to journalist Bülent Mumay, European funds to support journalism in Turkey or donations from other foundations such as the Open Society or the European Endowment for Democracy are useful, but not sustainable in the long term.

According to Fatih Polat, what Turkey needs is financial support that does not damage the profession’s ethics, but is above all support to the democratic culture of the country as a whole.

This publication has been produced within the project European Centre for Press and Media Freedom, co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and its partners and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union. The project’s page

]]>http://seenpm.org/turkey-media-european-solidarity-tolerance/feed/0NEWSOCRACY: who owns the news – and what does it meanhttp://seenpm.org/newsocracy-owns-news-mean/
http://seenpm.org/newsocracy-owns-news-mean/#respondFri, 30 Nov 2018 13:04:52 +0000http://seenpm.org/?p=6670Register now and join the ECPMF conference in Prague to discuss the challenges for press freedom in Europe and the Czech Republic by media ownership structures. when: Friday,...

The concentration of media ownership is affecting more and more European countries, and therefore all European media consumers. Join the conference to discuss how economic agendas and conflicts of interest undermine the independence of the information we consume every day.

ECPMF’s NEWSOCRACY event in Prague focuses on new forms and models of media ownership, and the implications of media ownership concentration for local and regional journalism. Through case studies, debates and expert sessions ECPMF aims to come up with constructive approaches to promote and strengthen media plurality.

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) is a non-profit European Cooperative Society, based in Leipzig, Germany. The ECPMF was founded in 2015 to promote the European Charter on Freedom of the Press throughout Europe. The ECPMF and its partners preserve and defend media freedom by monitoring the state of free media in Europe, providing news and tools on media freedom issues, initiating activities and providing practical support to journalists at risk.

]]>In an unprecedented concerted action pro-Orbán media owners ‘donated’ their news channels, internet news portals, tabloid and sports newspapers, several radio stations, numerous magazines and all of Hungary’s county newspapers, to a newly formed media conglomerate equipped with immense resources. It goes by the name Central European Press and Media Foundation and is headed by Orbán supporter and media owner Gábor Liszkay.

According to media reports, most of the publications donated to the Foundation were acquired or founded by allies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the past few years. Some of them turned from relatively independent outlets into supporters of the government, with copious state and government advertising, reports Council of Europe.

The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) strongly condemns this blunt anti-media freedom action which results in total control over the right-wing media close to the government while any of the few independent media that is left, are already starved of advertisement budgets.

‘With this new conglomerate controlling most of the media in Hungary, it will be practically impossible for anyone else to compete on the market,’ says Marius Dragomir, Director of the Center for Media, Data and Society in Hungary.

‘Media freedom in Hungary is no more,’ says Lutz Kinkel, Managing Director of the ECPMF. ‘The EU needs to decide and to follow through with EU Member States that openly abandon Europe’s very core values, such as the freedom of the press.’

The facade has dropped, says MEP Benedek Jávor.

‘Following this decision, government propaganda will have an even stronger and centralised voice in Hungary, with an incredible amount of resources controlled by the government. This system of a media market is unprecedented in a democracy, in fact, this resembles the media landscape in a dictatorship.’

On 28 November, the National Federation of Hungarian Journalists (MUOSZ) sent a letter to the Media Authority and the Competition Office in Hungary, in order to denounce the hegemonic position of the new conglomerate, in many areas of the press, including national commercial radio and county newspapers, reports Council of Europe.

Since 2012, Freedom House has described Hungary’s media status as ‘partly free’. In the World Press Freedom Index it ranks 78 of 180 – however, this was before the conglomerate was founded.